SINCE new consumer protection legislation was passed in June this year, Palma City Council has seized, 2'167 items of retail goods - allegedly bogus products - after 71 widespread inspections, Commerce Councillor, Joana Maria Borras confirmed yesterday.
Borras was speaking yesterday about the City Council's involvement in a campaign to broaden public awareness about the damage that the buying and selling of falsified products - in Palma's case mostly shoes and clothing - can do to the bona fide Commerce sector.
Accompanied by other Consumer Protection and Commerce officials, Borras visited the information tent on the subject which has been set up in the Plaza de la Puerta Pintada in Palma.
She said that businesses which had been adversely affected by bogus goods flooding the market needed to join forces. She suggested they could explore whether further legislation empowering them to crackdown on any falsified products either being sold in shops or on the street, were possible.
Borras said that as the law stood at the moment, black marketeers weren't being brought to book because they would simply hold up the queue waiting to get to court and then be set free the same day to deal in bogus products all over again.
The Councillor said that the affects of recent inspections had been far reaching because once traders had realised that the Consumer department was checking the safety and quality standards of stock items, they had changed their practices to conform to legal trading standards.